


in the silence (is where you'll find me)

by ArialaCoeur



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Family Feels, Gen, Hashirama being Problematic™, I wanted to break my writer's block with some fluff, Question: Am I Ever In My Right Mind?, Senju Family Feels, This family needs so much therapy I stg, Tobirama is my FAVE, Touka is also my fave, and not sleep-deprived, but the muse chose angst, current experts say no, for once written while I was in my right mind, or maybe some comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 14:03:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16243142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArialaCoeur/pseuds/ArialaCoeur
Summary: When a heart breaks, oh, it don't break even.(a.k.a. an exploration of why you should tell your siblings you love them and MEAN it.)





	in the silence (is where you'll find me)

**Author's Note:**

> this features a little idea of mine that I probably picked up from someone else, but don't remember clearly enough to credit. anyway: everyone has a 'heart' that is their emotional centre, and it's composition/substance reflects their personality and how they process the world around them and their interpersonal relationships. in Naruto-verse, this may or may not align with chakra affinity, but it is principally a personality thing. it isn't quite corporeal as such, but can manifest in a visual form in moments of intense stress and heightened emotion. (people who know how can hide this reaction- learning involves a lot of being provoked, so feast your mind's eye on prickly baby Tobirama being poked at until he snaps and tries to take someone's head off, after which Touka makes it clear that she will be the one to teach her baby cousin this necessary skill, please and THANKS. Hashirama: can but doesn't.)

Hashirama wasn’t made for a quiet sort of heartbreak. No, when Hashirama’s glass heart shattered (again and again and _again_ ), battering itself against the wall of stone that Madara had thrown up towards him, it was with a wail and a flash and the kind of sorrowful weeping that one hoped to never hear coming from a graveyard at night.

A glass heart that hope could mend as many times as necessary, springing up strong and vibrant as grass beneath a lush summer’s sun, ready to risk itself once more.

Tobirama, however- he’d lived his life in the shadows, as silent and expressionless as the gleaming harvest moon. Heartbreak came to him on all too muffled feet.

In the inflections of “If not for you…”

In the reflection of a broken mirror, marred with blood and the marks of a hastily thrown fist, once he was safely back in his rooms.

In brown eyes that never looked at him the same again, (oh, how much it _hurt_ ) no matter how often and fiercely Touka might remind him of her own love, as steadfast and unchanging as the path the stars traced across the night skies.

A heart of water, full of life, adaptable to change, yet steadily accepting any obstacles placed in its path, to return ever to its course- so abruptly cooled, at last, held to its shape as best as could be by metal bands. A living heart, that did its job and saw him through each day. A heart whose corners were claimed by his students, by Hashirama’s children, by little Tsunade whose wide smile so brightened his days, just like her grandfather’s.

It wasn’t easy, living with a heart cracked through from side-to-side. But then, Tobirama had never asked for easy. To live, and be content- that was enough.


End file.
